July 2009: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a research center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has released two new papers on adaptation to climate change in Africa, with a focus on poor farmers

The first paper, “Economywide Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa” analyzes two possible climate change adaptation options for the region. The first doubles the irrigated area in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2050 but keeps total crop area constant; and the second scenario increases both rainfed and irrigated crop yields by 25% for all Sub-Saharan African countries. The efficacy of the two scenarios as adaptation measures to cope with climate change is discussed.
The second paper is titled “Soil and Water Conservation Technologies: A Buffer against Production Risk in the Face of Climate Change?” It investigates the impact of different soil and water conservation technologies on the variance of crop production in Ethiopia to determine the risks of the different technologies for different regions and rainfall zones. [Economywide Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa][Soil and Water Conservation Technologies]